“Typically in other universities, this wouldn’t go to an undergraduate student,” Matt Jackson, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, said of the students’ project.

The Pantex craft department molds thousands of items used throughout the Energy Department nuclear weapons plant. But the process is labor-intensive and time-consuming, said Pantex chemist Stephanie Steelman, the students’ mentor.

“It may have taken me four years if I had done it on plant site,” she said, noting WT’s lab environment helps foster student learning and offers cheaper overhead costs than doing the development work at Pantex.

Now, a mold that once took more than 2 hours to pour at Pantex can be finished in about 15 minutes.

“They are actually training my journeymen how to do this thing,” Scott Hetzler, craft manager for B&W Pantex, said of the budding engineers. “I’ve got three months of training that I’m going to get out of this thing.”

With Steelman’s guidance, Devin and Matt also must ensure that poured polymers don’t contain any gases that would make parts unusable at Pantex.

“Now they are see-through. Now they know there’s no bubbles in there,” Steelman said as she held a small flexible piece of polymer the students poured in the lab.

Steelman said Pantex’s polymer-molding process now uses toluene, a toxic solvent, but the new method incorporates a cheaper, bio-friendly material that smells like oranges and can be recycled.

“They call on the line and say we need this and we need it tomorrow, Scott will be able to deliver it to them,” she said. “You don’t have to put it in a landfill, you don’t have to burn it.”

The special polymers can be used to pour seals, create table buffers that make explosives work safer, mold weapons nose cone covers and create static-free safety mats for Pantex technicians assembling or dismantling a warhead.

Ed Veiga, manager of B&W Pantex’s public affairs department, said the collaboration between plant scientists and WT also spurs interest from Amarillo College students and even middle-schoolers who could one day work as engineers at Pantex.

The high-tech mixing machine the students train on cost more than $200,000, but the device will quickly pay for itself by cutting labor costs, saving U.S. taxpayers more than $95,000 yearly.

“Conservatively, the return on investment will be less than a year at the plant,” Steelman said.

The students also said they’re learning valuable technical skills they hope to take on to grad school or into the workplace.

“Most of it is on me and Matt,” Devin said as he finished another test pour,” he said. “We’re getting opportunity here that not many undergraduates get to do.”